Wednesday, 16 December 2020

From the 2021-2022 Insurance Year, there will be significant changes to the way Law Mutual calculates the Annual Contribution (commonly known as ‘the premium’) and the Insured’s Contribution (commonly known as ‘the excess’) payable by insured practices.

We recommend that you read Changes to the Law Mutual Insurance Arrangements 2021-2022 Insurance Year booklet that provides a full explanation of the changes.

Risk Management Discount

This year, 344 firms received the 5% discount on the Annual Contribution and enjoyed discounts ranging from $275 to many thousands of dollars.

To qualify for a Risk Management Discount on their 2021/2022 Annual Contribution, practices must ensure that:

1. All of the Partners or Practitioner Directors and at least 80% of the employed Practitioners of the Law Practice have attended at least two (2) hours of Law Mutual (WA) approved risk management training during the period 1 March 2020 to 28 February 2021.
    
2. The Practice declares in its Application for Insurance that it has met the training requirements above and is entitled to the Risk Management Discount.
    
3. The Practice is able to produce, within 7 days of a written request by Law Mutual (WA), documentary proof that it has met the training requirements, such as certificates of the attendance of Practitioners at approved training.

The Practice must agree that if such documentary proof is not produced to the satisfaction of Law Mutual (WA), the Practice will immediately repay to Law Mutual (WA) the equivalent of the Risk Management Discount it received together with the GST payable thereon. Further, the Practice will not again be entitled to a Risk Management Discount until it has completed two consecutive years of training requirements.

In-House Risk Management Seminars

Law Mutual (WA) is committed to assisting insured firms to manage professional liability risks through practical, tailored and interactive training.

We may be able to arrange an in-house workshop for your firm, depending on the number of practitioners in your firm (minimum 15 attendees required), where we focus on risks that are of most concern to your practice.

It is important to conduct the in-house seminar early enough in the insurance year, to ensure that there is time for any practitioners that have unfortunately missed the in-house seminar, to fill the risk management training gaps by utilising the remainder of our face-to-face Risk Management seminar programme before the 28 February 2021 deadline, if your practice is intending on applying for the Risk Management Discount.

To arrange an In-House Risk Management Seminar for your practice, please contact Amy Goodall, Administration & Risk Officer on (08) 9324 8624 or email agoodall@lawmutualwa.com.au.

Simple Way to Improve Cyber-Security

Cyber-attack is a growing risk for Western Australian law firms.

One way that cyber-criminals target law firms is by using bots to change your email controls. (A bot is a software program that operates on the internet and does repetitive tasks.)

This alert provides a fast and simple method for lawyers with limited IT skills to check and prevent such attacks.

Background

Outlook and other email platforms enable users to set up automatic rules for emails. For example, you can set up a rule that all emails containing the name of a particular client are automatically forwarded to another lawyer working on that client’s matter.

Unfortunately, cyber-criminals have developed bots that enter your Outlook system and create rules to assist them to defraud you and your clients.

For example, they can set a rule that any emails containing the words “payment”, ”settlement”, “bank account” or “BSB” etc. are automatically forwarded to them. Once alerted that your firm is about to make a financial transaction, they might send a bogus email to you, your client or a counterparty saying that the bank account details have been updated, so that payment is made to their account.

They can also set up rules to ensure that legitimate warnings and confirmations from your bank are blocked.

In most cases the lawyer does not even have to open up the email; it only needs to arrive in the user’s inbox to activate the rule.

Method

The following instructions explain how to find and remove these automatic email rules in just 2 minutes. They should be implemented by everyone in the firm on a regular basis.

1. Go into Outlook.
2. Click on File at the top left of the screen.
3. Click on Rules and Alerts.
4. Each green tick represents a Rule. Check each in turn and then read the Rule description that appears in the box below.
5. If any Rule appears that was not created by the user or by the firm, delete it.

Get to know your Law Mutual (WA)

Amy Goodall, Administration & Risk Officer

Amy joined Law Mutual (WA) as our Administration & Risk Officer in November 2020, working alongside Vicki Coles, Manager Risk, overseeing and supporting the administration activities related to the Law Mutual Risk Management Programme and the Professional Indemnity Insurance Management Committee. Prior to Law Mutual, Amy completed her Master’s Degree in Social & Public Policy at Macquarie University, whilst working in the Oil & Gas Industry.

Outside of work, Amy enjoys spending time with her family, especially taking her Bernese Mountain Dog (Alaska) and 10-month-old son (Archer) for walks along Leighton beach. She loves any kind of Italian food and the occasional Aperol Spritz!